Robert Pelletreau: Longtime Mideast Figure

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL; Special to The New York Times

Published: December 15, 1988

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14—
When Secretary of State George P. Shultz picked Robert H. Pelletreau Jr. as the sole authorized contact between the United States and the Palestine Liberation Organization, it was not the first time the 26-year Foreign Service veteran had been tapped for a highly sensitive mission.

In June 1985, Mr. Pelletreau was assigned by the State Department to be one of two heads of an interagency task force charged with gathering information during the hijacking of a Trans World Airlines jet, a 17-day ordeal that ended in Beirut on June 30 when the hijackers released their last 39 American hostages.

Mr. Pelletreau, who speaks French and Arabic, has long been a player in Middle East peace efforts. As Deputy Under Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs from 1983 to 1985, Mr. Pelletreau was deeply involved in trying to arrange an international conference on the Middle East and determining the proper representation for the Palestinians in such a conference.

The 53-year-old diplomat is currently serving as Ambassador to Tunisia, his second ambassadorial post. Mr. Pelletreau was Ambassador to Bahrain in 1979-80. With Naval Reserve

Before the announcement tonight that he would serve as a conduit to the P.L.O., Mr. Pelletreau was mentioned as a candidate to succeed Richard W. Murphy as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in the Bush Administration.

Born July 9, 1935, in Patchogue, L.I., Robert Halsey Pelletreau (prounounced PELL-ah-trow) received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1957 and served in the United States Naval Reserve from 1957 to 1958. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1961 and was admitted to the bar in New York State, working for a year as an associate in the law firm of Chadbourne Parke Whiteside & Wolff in Manhattan.

But Mr. Pelletreau did not stay in legal practice for long. Joining the Foreign Service in 1962, he has served in Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia and Syria.

In 1980-81, and again in 1985-87, he was assigned to the Pentagon, where he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near East and South Asian Affairs. From 1981 to 1983, he was Director for Arabian Peninsula Affairs at the State Department, followed by two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. He was nominated as Ambassador to Tunisia by President Reagan in March 1987.

Mr. Pelletreau is married to Pamela Day Pelletreau, who has a doctorate in political science from George Washington University. They have three children.